Bottle carrier



E. C. BOOTH BOTTLE CARRIER May 2, 1944.

Filed July 17, 1941 I NVE NTOR. [7 a flaw/wag,

Patented May 2, 1944 UNITED BOTTLE CARRIER Earl C. Booth, Columbus, Ind., assignor to Noblitt- Sparks Industries, Inc., Columbus, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application July 17, 1941, Serial No. 402,825

7 Claims.

This invention is an improvement on the bottle carriers set forth and described in co-pending applications Serial Nos. 224,175 (issued September 16, 1941, as Patent No. 2,256,451) and 288,491, and the object of the invention is to simplify and cheapen the manufacture of a bottle carrier and to facilitate its assembly.

Each of the bottle carriers of the prior applications above mentioned comprised a base adapted to support two parallel rows of bottles, sheetmetal sides hinged to opposite side edges of such base, and interlocking handle-forming elements carried by the sides and adapted when interlocked to hold the sides in substantially upright position. In the prior applications, the base of the carrier was shown as formed of wire, either of a single length of wire repeatedly retroverted or of a plurality of transversely extending wires having their ends welded to longitudinally extending wires upon which the sheet-metal sides of the carrier were hinged.

In carrying out the present invention, I form the base of a plurality of pairs of transversely extending wires, the corresponding ends of the wires forming each pair being bent to extend toward each other in alined relation; and I secure the wires of each pair and the several pairs of wires together by means of a sheet-metal connector disposed at each side of the base and bent into tubular form to embrace the alined wireends. The sheet-metal sides of the carrier are pivotally mounted upon this connector, and the handle-forming elements are vertically slidable in suitable guides provided at the ends of the carrier-sides so that the handle can be depressed below or elevated above the tops of the bottles in the carrier. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the handle-forming elements and their co-operating guides have provisions which releasably hold the handle in depressed position.

The accompanying drawing illus ates my invention: Fig. l is an end elevation of the carrier with a portion of one side broken away, the handle being shown in depressed position in full lines and in elevated position in dotted lines; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the carrier with one side removed and the other side shown in horizontal section; Fig. 3 is a fragmental vertical section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 4; Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a fragmental plan view of a sheet-metal connector before its application to the transverse wires of the base; Fig. 6 is a fragmental elevation of an end portion of the assembled base; and Fig. 7 is a fragmental elevation similar to Fig. 1 but on a somewhat larger scale and illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.

The carrier illustrated in the drawing comprises a base, designated generally by the reference numeral l0, and sheet-metal sides It pivoted to said base on opposite side edges thereof. As will be clear from Fig. 2, the base comprises a plurality of pairs of generally transverse wires formed to provide a support for two rows of bottles. The intermediate portions of the two wires of each pair are ofiset toward each other into overlapping relationship to provide in each wire obliquely extending portions l5 united at their inner ends by a transversely extending portion l6. At the outer ends of the oblique portions l5, each wire is bent to extend generally upwardly as indicated at H, and the extreme ends I8 01 the wire are bent to extend horizontally longitudinally of the base, as is perhaps most clearly shown in Fig. 4.

Where the oblique portions l5 of each pair of wires cross each other, they are flattened to approximately half their diameter and are oppositely offset as indicated at 20 in Figs. 1 and 2.

= The intermediate transverse portion I8 of each wire may be upwardly offset as indicated at 21. the offset portions 2| and the vertical portions ll of the several pairs of wires serving to locate the bottles both laterally and transversely of the base It). To provide a better seat for the bottles, the crossing oblique portions 15 may be offset upwardly slightly as indicated in Fig. 1. To lessen the cost of manufacture, all the wires may be identical in form.

To unite the two wires of each pair and the several pairs, a sheet-metal connector 25 such as illustrated in Fig. 5 is employed. This connector has a length equal to the length of the base and a width sufficient to enable it to be bent into tubular form surrounding the alined wire-ends I8 at each side of the base. One or both sides of the connector 25 are notched as indicated at 26 to provide clearance for the downwardly-extending wire-portion IT; and at each end, the connector is provided with a finger 21.. In assembling the base, the various wires are held in the positions illustrated in Fig. 2 with the wireends l8 at each side of the base in alinement, and the connector 25 is applied to such alined wire-ends and wrapped therearound to form a tube, as will be clear from Figs. 3 and 4. The notches 26 in the connector will form openings through which the wire portions ll will pass, and the fingers 21 are bent downwardly as indicated in Fig. 6 to prevent withdrawal of the end wires from the connector. Obviously, the fingers 21' and the sides of the notches 23 will serve to locate the several wires longitudinally of the base.

As in the case of the carriers illustrated in the prior applications above referred to, each of the sheet-metal sides ll of the carrier is notched along its lower edge to provide fingers 30 which are wrapped around the associated connector 25 to form a hinge joint permitting the side to swing about the axis of the alined wire-ends l8. Adjacent its ends, each of the sides is bent obliquely inwardly to form a flange 3| that confines the end bottles in the carrier. The extreme edge portion 32 of each side is bent inwardly to extend back along the flange 3| to which it is secured as by means of rivets 33, such retroverted edge portions of the sides constituting guides which slidably receive wire yokes 34 and 35. One of these yokes, here shown as the yoke 35, is longer than the other and is provided with a tubular handle 36. The upper end of the yoke 35 carrying the handle 36 is adapted to pass through the yok 34, as will be clear from Fig. 1; and the crossing portions of the two yokes 34 and 35 are oppositely offset as indicated at 31, and as more fully set forth and described in co-pending applications above referred to, in order to hold the two yokes resiliently in assembled condition. To limit upward movement of the yokes relative to the sides Ii, the ends of the wire forming each. are

bent outwardly as indicated at 38, and the lower portion of the guide 32 is enlarged to receive the wire-end 38 and to provide a shoulder 39 against which the wire-end 38 engages when the handle is raised to the dotted-line position illustrated in Fig. 1. As in prior application Serial No. 288,491 above referred to, the guides 32 slope. upwardly and inwardly so that when the handle-forming yokes are depressed from the dotted-line to the full-line position shown in Fig. 1, the sides M will be drawn inwardly to cause beads 40 along the upper edges thereof to engage bottles in the carrier and prevent their withdrawal.

In the modified form of guide illustrated in Fig. 7, that portion of each of the handle-forming yokes which is received in the guide is provided intermediately with an offset 45, and opposite this oifset the wall of the guide is provided with an inwardly displaced portion 46. The parts are so formed that a slight distortion of either th offset 45 or the inwardly displaced portion 48, or both, is necessary to enable those portions to pass each other as the handle-forming element moves vertically in the guide. With the handle depressed, the offset 45 lies imme iately below the portion 46 which, projecting inwardly above the offset, serves resiliently to hold the handle-forming yokes in depressed position with the beads 40 moved inwardly to retain the bottles.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a bottle carrier, a base comprising a plurality of pairs of discrete, generally transverse, bottle-supporting wires, corresponding end portions of the wires of each pair extending toward each other in alined relation and longitudinally of the base at the sides thereof, a tubular connector within which the alined wire-ends at each side of the base are received, each of said tubular connectors having openings in its wall for the passage of the body portions of said wires, said openings being not materially larger than the body portions oi said-wires whereby said wires are prevented from material movement relative to each other or to said connector, sides mounted respectively on said connectors and rotatable relatively thereto, and means for releasably holding said sides in-erect position.

2. In a bottle carrier, a base comprising a plurality of discrete generally transverse, bottle-supporting wires, corresponding end portions of said wires extending in alined relation and longitudinally of the base at the sides thereof, a tubular connector within which the alined wire-ends at each side of the base are received, each of said tubular connectors having openings in its wall for the passage of the body portions of said wires, said openings being not materially larger than the body portions of said wires'whereby said wires are prevented from material movement relative to each other or to said connector, sides mounted respectively on said connectors and rotatable relatively thereto, and means for releasably holding said sides in erect position.

3. The invention set forth in claim 2 with the addition that the end portions of the wires at the ends of the base project into the tubular connectors from. the ends thereof, each end of each of said connectors being provided with a tongue bent over the adjacent wire to prevent withdrawal of the associated end portion of such wire.

4. The invention set forth in claim 2 with the addition that adjacent ones of said wires have their intermediate portions offset toward each other longitudinally of said base, each of said oflset portions having a central part extending transversely of said base and oblique parts extending generally outwardly of said base from the ends of said central part, the oblique parts of each wire crossing the oblique parts of the I other wire of the pair.

5. In a bottle carrier, a base, said base comprising a plurality oi. identical wires, each of said wires being bent in the plane of the base to provide oppositely oblique portions extending outwardly from the center of the base toward the sides thereof and respectively crossing the corresponding oblique portions of an adjacent wire, the oblique portions of adjacent wires where they cross being flattened and oppositely offset, and carrier sides mounted on said base along the side edges thereof and extending upwardly therefrom.

6. The invention set forth in claim 5 with the addition that the end portions of said wires are bent to extend into alined relation at each side of the base to extend longitudinally thereof, each of said sides being pivotally attached to the base co-axially with the alined end portions of the wires.

7. In a bottle carrier, a base, sides pivotally attached to said base at opposite side edges thereof, interlocking handle-forming yokes, said sides being provided with guides respectively receiving said yokes and guiding them for generally vertical sliding movement between an upper and a lower position, and co-operating provisions on said yokes and guides for releasably holding the yokes in their lower position, the guides on the respective sides being oppositely inclined so that movement of the yokes from their upper to their lower position will cause the upper edges of the sides to move inwardly of the carrier.

- EARL C. BOOTH. 

